From Mistake to Photographic Stardom: Giuseppe Primoli, Italian Photographer – A Contribution to the Knowledge of 19th- Century Travel Photography of the Eastern Adriatic Coast with Special Attention to Depictions of Trogir

Abstract

The paper is based on newspaper articles published during May 1891 in a number of domestic and foreign periodicals, which mention the stay of ‘Count Tremoli’ in towns located along the eastern Adriatic coast. Based on the analysis of archival sources, memoir materials, and photographic documentation, it was established that the erroneously cited name actually refers to the Italian-French count Giuseppe Primoli (1851–1927), a prominent photographer described as ‘the greatest photographer of the first hundred years of Italian photography’ and counted among the most significant Roman photographers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. His oeuvre, created in May 1891 during a journey along the Adriatic, in the company of the former French Empress Eugénie (1826–1920) and the British composer, conductor, and writer Ethel Mary Smyth (1858–1944), represents a valuable contribution to the understanding of the early artistic and documentary photographic depictions of the eastern Adriatic coast. Since seventeen of Primoli’s photographs of Trogir, nine of Split, four of Dubrovnik, two of Zadar, and one each of Šibenik, Rovinj, and Cape Oštro on Privlaka have been identified, this study pays particular attention to the photographs of Trogir, as the most extensive part of the entire cycle. The attribution process was based on visual comparison of the photographs with confirmed motifs and images from other sources, field surveys of the individual locations, and verification of the labels and notes recorded in the digital archive of the Primoli Foundation. In order to precisely establish the corpus, duplicates and mirrored reproductions were also taken into account. The results of the research and analysis of maritime itineraries, Giuseppe Primoli’s extensive photographic legacy, media coverage of the voyage of the former Empress Eugénie, and Ethel Smyth’s autobiographical accounts—which confirm the authenticity of the journey—contribute not only to illuminating cultural contacts and the understanding of the visual representation of the eastern Adriatic region, but also to knowledge of European travel at the end of the 19th century.